It was really helpful to see everyone's film clip lesson plans. There are so many movies based on young adult novels! And so many young adult novels that I've never heard of! It always helps to see everyone else's ideas because we can build off of them. And it lets us know who everyone is and will be as a teacher, which I always think is very neat. There is definitely a broad spectrum of creativity represented in our class and in this program, and I'm sure that all of us will succeed in maintaining the ingenuity that is integral to the teaching profession.
I chose to write my lesson plan for Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God again. I chose a clip from YouTube that features the sond "Poor Unfortunate Souls" from Disney's The Little Mermaid to go along with it. My rationale was a comparison/discussion between the idea of finding yourself as they are depicted in the two medias. Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God embarks on a journey to find her voice and eventually, after successive relationships with dominant male figures, discovers the boundaries of her horizon. Meanwhile, Ariel chooses to give up her voice in an effort to meet the man that she loves and get him to fall in love with her. It's so ironic (and horrible) that as children our society throws the message at you that you must give up your opinions (in the case of The Little Mermaid, Ariel's opinions are symbolized by her "voice") in order to find love. Ursela sings to Ariel, "It won't cost much, just your voice!" As if giving up a part of who you are is negligible compared to the prospect of finding a good man. Well, I could go off on a tangent here, but I'm pretty sure that I already slightly did both in my lesson plan and in my presentation. So, I'm sorry for any childhood memories of Disney movies that may have been tainted by this new perspective. Actually, I'm not that sorry because it's quite upsetting that the majority of our youthful cultural icons (cartoon icons?) had to be rescued by a handsome prince before we could look up to them.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
disney and copyright laws
I am so glad that we learned about Fair Use Policy; however, I have to admit that I plan on breaking a few rules. But at least now I know them! There is just no way that I won't have music in my classroom or will only be showing three minutes of movies. These things are vital to the classroom environment that I plan to entertain. I think there should be exceptions to the Fair Use Policy for use in public education where the funds to purchase the materials are just not there. At the very least, we should be given the opportunity to use more of the media than non-educators do (or something to that effect--I'm sure something could be worked out if we asked Disney kindly enough..). At any rate, the information presented was definitely useful because we were given many options for obtaining copyrighted materials by means other than stealing it. Cable in the Classroom is a good resource that I discovered as a result of this presentation, and the Powerpoint contains helpful notes regarding how much of each type of copyrighted media we are allowed to use for free. Also, I LOVED the Disney film and will definitely be using that in my classroom when it comes time for me to teach my students about copyright infringement.
webquest presentations
It was so interesting to see everyone's webquests! Not only did it give me insight into the dynamic and unique personalities represented in our classroom, but it also provided me with a valuable annotated list of young adult novels. Choosing appropriate literature is a big fear of mine because I don't feel like I have enough experience with young adult literature (I honestly have no idea where my memory of reading all throughout middle and high school has gone...), so this list is very beneficial for me. I've got my summer reading cut out for me!
Also, the "tasks" represented in the webquests were so neat! So many ideas were presented, many of which I NEVER would have though of on my own. I didn't even know that iMovie existed, and I am very excited to explore it and come up with ways to implement it into my classroom. That is the great thing about the nature of our program at FSU: the classes are very student-centered. We learn from the teacher, from each other, and from ourselves. Discussions and student presentations are vital to our future success, as they will be to our future students' success.
Also, the "tasks" represented in the webquests were so neat! So many ideas were presented, many of which I NEVER would have though of on my own. I didn't even know that iMovie existed, and I am very excited to explore it and come up with ways to implement it into my classroom. That is the great thing about the nature of our program at FSU: the classes are very student-centered. We learn from the teacher, from each other, and from ourselves. Discussions and student presentations are vital to our future success, as they will be to our future students' success.
webquests
Obviously, I am writing this about the distant past (or from far in the future, depending on your perspective); however, I am going to attempt to transcend the boundaries of time and summon my thoughts regarding the events of Wednesday night, January 30th.
We came up with ideas for a webquest. I had a really hard time thinking of something to do, though I knew that I wanted to use Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. I love this book and tend to use it a lot in my lesson plans. I had a hard time coming up with a task for the students to do that would line up with the themes of the novel. However, when I did, the rest of the content of the webquest seemed to flow out of my mind, through my fingertips, and appeared on the computer screen.
Webquests are a fun and interactive activity that teachers can quickly and easily design for students. They oblige students to get involved in ways that they may never have before because the assignments are more interesting and student-centered. There are many ways that they can be used, depending on the range of tasks that the teacher assigns. The "resources" section also provides a safe and easy way for students to access the web without being distracted or exposed to inappropriate content. I think it would also be fun for the students to be assigned the "task" of creating a webquest for their classmates. Perhaps they could be put into groups with each group being responsible for a different novel (a great way to bring in student choice in reading selection!) and then create a webquest for their classmates. This would give students knowledge of a variety of novels and hopefully incite them to read a few on their own.
We came up with ideas for a webquest. I had a really hard time thinking of something to do, though I knew that I wanted to use Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. I love this book and tend to use it a lot in my lesson plans. I had a hard time coming up with a task for the students to do that would line up with the themes of the novel. However, when I did, the rest of the content of the webquest seemed to flow out of my mind, through my fingertips, and appeared on the computer screen.
Webquests are a fun and interactive activity that teachers can quickly and easily design for students. They oblige students to get involved in ways that they may never have before because the assignments are more interesting and student-centered. There are many ways that they can be used, depending on the range of tasks that the teacher assigns. The "resources" section also provides a safe and easy way for students to access the web without being distracted or exposed to inappropriate content. I think it would also be fun for the students to be assigned the "task" of creating a webquest for their classmates. Perhaps they could be put into groups with each group being responsible for a different novel (a great way to bring in student choice in reading selection!) and then create a webquest for their classmates. This would give students knowledge of a variety of novels and hopefully incite them to read a few on their own.
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